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Atticus: John Burns

Flynn looks like a politician in an artist’s smock

Mannix Flynn is becoming quite the diva. His latest gripe is that the arts centre in Portlaoise won't hang in its foyer a statement by a victim of sexual abuse containing the phrases "orally raped" and "anal rape" in large type. Quite correctly, Louise Donlon, the centre's director, was concerned about the effect on children.

Flynn responded in a wearisomely familiar way: by starting a row, crying "censorship" and issuing a long-winded statement, which included the bizarre charge that Donlon was guilty of "negligence". He also, unfairly, demanded she resign. All this in lieu of a simple compromise: moving the statement upstairs.

Although he is in receipt of a cnuas from Aosdana, and his company gets an Arts Council grant, it seems legitimate to ask if Flynn is an "artist". Is he, rather, a propagandist, a campaigner or a politician? He may have answered the question - by being elected to